This report summarizes launch outcomes from the Launch Intel dataset: 208,072 products collected from seven platforms, with no surveys and no self-reported success metrics. Every number in this report comes from measured platform data. We classify success differently on each platform because success itself means different things depending on where you launch.
Launch Intel aggregates product data from Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, AppSumo, BetaList, TrustMRR, Hacker News (Show HN), and Acquire.com. Data is collected from each platform's public listings, with outcomes measured directly from platform metrics.
This is not a survey. We do not ask founders whether their launch succeeded. We measure outcomes: leaderboard placement, upvote counts, review counts, verified revenue, and listing status.
Hacker News dominates the dataset with 150,764 posts, reflecting the volume of Show HN submissions over years of archives. Indie Hackers contributes 36,099 products. Product Hunt, AppSumo, TrustMRR, BetaList, and Acquire.com contribute smaller but higher-signal datasets focused on launch outcomes.
Success definitions vary by platform. On Product Hunt, success means daily leaderboard placement (44.0% of our enriched dataset). On Hacker News, 1.77% of posts reach 100+ points in our 41,828-post research sample. On AppSumo, fewer than 3% of submitted products get a featured deal.
These rates are not directly comparable. A 44% PH leaderboard rate and a 1.77% HN 100-point rate measure different things on different scales. What they share: most launches on every platform fail to reach top-tier outcomes.
See how your description scores across Product Hunt, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, AppSumo, BetaList, TrustMRR, and Acquire.com.
Score your product descriptionBy raw success rate, Show HN is the most difficult platform. Only 1.77% of posts reach 100+ points. Even in our broader dataset of 150,764 posts, only 3.97% (5,973 posts) cross the 100-point threshold.
HN's difficulty reflects its power-law distribution. The average post receives 16.2 upvotes. The median is likely below 5. A front-page post can send 50,000 visitors, but the vast majority of posts receive single-digit upvotes and disappear.
AppSumo has one of the lowest acceptance rates (<3% featured) but one of the highest per-deal values. A successful AppSumo deal can generate 1,000-5,000 lifetime customers in a single week. Average review count across our 2,459 deals is 41.2.
The AppSumo model's average prediction probability is 49.8%, reflecting an almost even split between top-deal and low-traction listings. AppSumo success is binary: you either break out or you do not.
Product Hunt delivers visibility, not revenue. 97%+ of Product Hunt launches never reach $1k MRR. This is the single most important data point in this report. Founders who treat PH as a customer acquisition channel are disappointed. Founders who treat it as brand awareness and email collection do better.
Our PH dataset shows an average of 90.1 upvotes per post, but upvotes do not correlate with revenue. The PH model's vote regressor was removed from production because it achieved only 50.4% direction accuracy, essentially a coin flip.
Despite different success criteria, successful descriptions share patterns across all seven platforms. They name a specific audience, describe a concrete outcome, and use domain-specific language rather than generic marketing terms.
Product Hunt winners mention specific technologies ("agents," "api," "cli"). Hacker News winners use technical terms ("open source," "sqlite," "graphql"). Acquire.com winners state financial metrics ("arr," "mrr," "sde"). Indie Hackers winners mention revenue and channels ("seo," "revenue," "efficiently").
Launch Intel assigns every product a success probability based on its description text. Average scores vary by platform, reflecting different baseline success rates and description quality in each dataset.
BetaList has the highest average score (64.6%) because most submissions meet minimum description standards. Acquire.com has the lowest (25.3%) because 90% of listings are pre-revenue projects with minimal financial detail.
Score your description across Product Hunt, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, AppSumo, BetaList, TrustMRR, and Acquire.com. Trained on 256,000+ real launches.
Score your product descriptionG2's 140,000+ product pages generate ~1.1M monthly organic visits; 6,100+ category pages generate another ~1.1M
132,690 total visits in July 2026; 50.69% from Google organic; 6:29 average session duration
97.4% making <$1K MRR 6-8 months post-launch
188,085 posts analyzed: median 2 points, 35.01% never receive a second vote
Less than 3% of submitted tools survive AppSumo's 25-point quality checklist
50+ launches analyzed: 15-20% typical conversion, 200-500 visitors per featured listing
Compare 7 launch platforms: Product Hunt, Show HN, AppSumo, Indie Hackers, BetaList, Acquire.com, and TrustMRR. Find the right fit for your product.
The complete Product Hunt launch guide for 2026: how to win product of the day, optimize your thumbnail, logo, and banner, write a founder story that drives upvotes, and what 25,636 real launches taught our ML model.
Show HN data analysis of 41,828 posts: power-law distribution, title patterns, technical authenticity, first-hour velocity, and an 8-step playbook.
